Universities, Students and Violence

DreamWeaver

DreamWeaver

Joined Aug 2010
10,440 Posts | 17+
Wales
So there was some vioeltn activity in London recently by students. Indeed a PhD friend of mine is currently researching medieval violence and sudents.

So I was wondering, Universities have been around for quite some time, the 12th and 13th Centuries in many cases, and surely acts of violence by students on either the local town or perhaps governemnts must not be a new phenomena. What are peoople thoughts on the matter. Anybody know of any poartiular takes of violence and chaos caused by students in the past, perhaps some have tales from their own days in the ahllowed halls of education.
 
DiaitaDoc

DiaitaDoc

Joined Apr 2010
303 Posts | 1+
Ottawa, Canada
University of Paris Student Riot - 1229

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Paris_strike_of_1229"]University of Paris strike of 1229 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]



Non-Academic (Town) vs. Academic (Gown) relations

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_and_gown"]Town and gown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
O

Ovidius

Joined Oct 2010
56 Posts | 0+
Frank81 said:
Of course May-68 in Paris

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_in_France

And previously the students uprising of Paris in July 1893

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=OW18930713.2.37
Click to expand...

1968 is certainly the most famous for students. This was really the hayday of Student protest. In the Latin Quarter of Paris (student ville), they were literally, lifting the cobbles and throwing them at the police. There was actually a bit of uproar when they started getting rid of the Pave in certain parts of Paris for this reason - they are there to throw at police! Columbia University and NYU were particularly bad - I think Vietnam and Racial equality based.

I have to say that Czech Students are by far the most extreme anti-Government of all world students - particulatry Charles University. I'm not sure about pre-1848, but starting from the European Revolutions in 1848, Students in Czechoslovakia have protested fairly significantly and frequently. Internation Students day commemorates the death of a Czech student 1939 - protesting against the Nazi's. The protests against the Soviet invasion were also fairly hardcore - Jan Palacky and jan zajic set themselves on fire in protest! Obviously the final key protest against their government was the Velvet Revolution - which actually started on International Students Day - 50 years after Czech Student protests became famous.

So Czech Students are really the Student Uprising model.
 
V

vid

Joined Jun 2009
1,610 Posts | 2+
Slovakia
Ovidius said:
So Czech Students are really the Student Uprising model.
Click to expand...
Aside from what you mentioned, let us not forget that about 3000 students were the only one who actively opposed communist solution to government crisis in february 1948 (with little effect, considering that other side had 1000 times that much support in streets).
 
Bismarck

Bismarck

Joined Dec 2009
2,847 Posts | 1+
rangiora
The educated classes have always been the purveyors of radicalism and revolution.
 
W

wer

Joined Apr 2010
53 Posts | 0+
Ovidius said:
I have to say that Czech Students are by far the most extreme anti-Government of all world students - particulatry Charles University.
Click to expand...
Yes and no, Czech students often rebel on political, religious or scientific grounds, but almost never on behalf of their own material interests. The only exception which comes to my mind is the 1967 unrest at Strahov colleges.
It started on purely materialistic ground as a peacefull protest against cutting the electricity. It eventually turned into protest against communist regime after the communist authorities resorted to violence. It's quite funny that the communists thought that the students shouting "We want more light!" had some hidden political agenda. The fact that it happened on the day of communist party congress was likely decisive.

I'm not sure about pre-1848, but starting from the European Revolutions in 1848, Students in Czechoslovakia have protested fairly significantly and frequently.
Click to expand...
The biggest student unrests prior 1848 were perhaps the unrests preceding the Hussite wars and the "student war" between the Protestant University and the Catholic Jesuit College.
One of the less known, but the more interesting, unrests prior 1848 was the student uproar during Bernard Bolzano controversy.

The protests against the Soviet invasion were also fairly hardcore - Jan Palacky and jan zajic set themselves on fire in protest!
Click to expand...
Jan Palach, Palacký is the historian.
But I don't think these acts of individual students count as student unrests.
 
maharbbal

maharbbal

Joined Oct 2010
294 Posts | 7+
Paomia, Corsica
I guess there is a number of reasons for students to be more easily prone to rioting than other categories of the population.

To start with the obvious, they are young and young people tend to be more violent (prisons and armies are for teens).

The there is the fact that in case of economic crisis, they are the one often suffering the most as in every sector insiders tend to close the doors. In 17th century Turkey, students who could not become clerics or civil servants any more joined the bands of rebelled peasants.

Finally, they are often trying to integrate administrations (as opposed to self-made men) and violence is little else than a mean to negotiate better conditions with these admistrations.
 
R

Rosi

Joined Jul 2008
6,242 Posts | 3+
maharbbal said:
I guess there is a number of reasons for students to be more easily prone to rioting than other categories of the population.

To start with the obvious, they are young and young people tend to be more violent (prisons and armies are for teens).

The there is the fact that in case of economic crisis, they are the one often suffering the most as in every sector insiders tend to close the doors. In 17th century Turkey, students who could not become clerics or civil servants any more joined the bands of rebelled peasants.

Finally, they are often trying to integrate administrations (as opposed to self-made men) and violence is little else than a mean to negotiate better conditions with these admistrations.
Click to expand...

Also probably because they are very impressionable and prone to being brainwashed so make for ideal pawns in the hands of political players. Isn't all of this violence politically motivated? There is almost always some sort of organised gang or a political party behind the scenes in such cases mobilising students into unions, or liaising with them, and waiting to capitalise on the dissatisfaction of the students with the state of affairs at any given university, or even picking up on any sporadic event for that matter, and provoking them into largescale protests so that they escalate into violence. I doubt students would without this political backing (or any kind of external backing) risk protesting or indulging in random acts of violence since most of them come from non-rich backgrounds and seem as if they actually care not to be rusticated or kicked out of the university for violating the code of conduct.
 
O

Ovidius

Joined Oct 2010
56 Posts | 0+
wer said:
Jan Palach, Palacký is the historian.
But I don't think these acts of individual students count as student unrests.
Click to expand...

Pah, I always get that wrong! I simply will never get this right, without looking it up!
 
DreamWeaver

DreamWeaver

Joined Aug 2010
10,440 Posts | 17+
Wales
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11829102

And again

I spoke to one sixth former who said he wanted to be a medical student. Halfway through our conversation, he raised a scarf over his face to disguise his identity and ran with his friend to clamber on top of the abandoned police van. As he ran off he said to me, if this turns violent, you've got to ask who's really responsible - we think it's the government.
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As opposed to accpeting responsibility for his own rational actions its easier to blame somebody else who obviously forced him atop the van.
 
Sargon of Akkad

Sargon of Akkad

Joined Jun 2009
6,987 Posts | 17+
Glorious England
I hated students even when I was one. They just have this sense of entitlement that I never seemed to be able to muster.
 
PraiseGod_Barebones

PraiseGod_Barebones

Joined May 2009
980 Posts | 0+
Hull
Was anybody else hoping for tear gas and rubber bullets? I love it when the SU tries to get involved in big boy stuff because the people that are attracted to student politics are always the last people that you would wish to be in charge. Makes me wish I were still a student just so while a load of Gap wearing wannabe anarchists and loser student politicians get riled up at meetings in the SU me and my friends could argue against them. God I miss Uni.
 
Milgod

Milgod

Joined Dec 2010
340 Posts | 0+
Peterborough
PraiseGod_Barebones said:
Was anybody else hoping for tear gas and rubber bullets? I love it when the SU tries to get involved in big boy stuff because the people that are attracted to student politics are always the last people that you would wish to be in charge. Makes me wish I were still a student just so while a load of Gap wearing wannabe anarchists and loser student politicians get riled up at meetings in the SU me and my friends could argue against them. God I miss Uni.
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As a football fan, who has on numerous occasions been pushed about by the police when not doing anything wrong, I was pretty annoyed at their 'stand-down' stance.

I'm all for protest and marches but the second that a bit of graffiti/vandalism occurred the police should have steamed in, truncheons swinging.
 
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